Twelve-year-old
Hasnah Mohamed Meselmani produced razor-sharp glass crystals from her
eyes, Share International reported at the end of 1996. Nabil Matraji,
our correspondent in the Lebanon, contacted the Meselmani family to
find out more about the amazing phenomenon, which lasted from March
till November 1996. A discussion with Hasnah confirmed that the unseen
hand behind the crystal miracle was that of Maitreya. A report about
the mysterious "white knight" follows.

Commotion stirred
the Arab world: a girl was making hard glass crystals, sharp enough
to cut paper, appear from her eyes seven times a day without any apparent
injury to herself - it had to be some kind of miracle. The 12-year-old
Hasnah Mohamed Meselmani became the centre of attention. Religious authorities
and scientists sought answers to the riddle.

The answer soon
came: it was 'fraud', and the girl had admitted it, at least that is
how the story was reported. Many people were upset and disappointed,
others, less inclined to believe in inexplicable 'miracles', were relieved.
Lebanon and other Arab countries declared the file closed and silence
descended on the story of Hasnah Mohamed Meselmani. And yet certain
questions remained unanswered. For instance, questions about the nature
of the so-called fraud. How did Hasnah manage to pull the whole thing
off with crystals coming out of her eyes in full view of television
cameras? If the television pictures were authentic and anything to go
by, then fraud would seem to be out of the question: the girl's eye
was filmed in close-up and showed pieces of glass slowly pushing out
of her eyes as if coming from the retina. Could she have first hidden
them in her eye herself? Or was it just illusion that the glass fragments
were seen coming out through the retina? And had Hasnah mastered the
trick of keeping them hidden in the corners of her eyes? And in both
cases: how could she do it without sustaining any injuries with crystals
shown to be sharp enough to cut paper, as also witnessed by the television
cameras?

For Share International
this was enough to encourage further investigation into the case, especially
since Benjamin Creme's Master indicated that this was indeed yet another
of Maitreya's many "signs".

In his first reply
the Master added to the mystery with this puzzling piece of information:
Yes, it was fraud but still a miracle, He said ambiguously. Asked for
an explanation He added: it was fraud in that it only appeared that
crystals were coming through Hasnah's retina whereas in fact they were
tears which Maitreya transformed into crystals at the instant they left
the tear duct. And that was the real miracle.

Armed with this
information our colleague in Lebanon, Nabil Matraji, got in touch with
Hasnah and her family. He was welcomed in a friendly and hospitable
but also somewhat reserved manner by Hasnah's father. The publicity
surrounding his daughter and the question of fraud had put him on his
guard - at least that was Nabil's impression. Until, that is, Nabil
told him that he belonged to a group of people who continued to believe
that Hasnah had not perpetrated fraud and that, on the contrary, it
was a real miracle and that she had been contacted by a "messenger
from God".

"Hasnah's
father changed at a stroke. Excitedly he said that that was exactly
what Hasnah herself had said. He was just surprised that I too knew
this, because the family had tried to keep it quiet," Nabil says.

When Hasnah came
home from school a few hours later Nabil asked her to describe the person
whom she had seen in her dream. "The girl became angry with her
father, thinking he had betrayed her secret to me. Only when he had
convinced his daughter that he had not said a word about her vision
did she calm down and begin to tell me her story."

It all began in
March 1996. She was at school when she felt something strange in her
left eye - her first piece of crystal, which, understandably, troubled
her. Back home, she told her family what had happened and, while she
was doing so, a second piece of crystal appeared in her eye. Her father
took her to the city of Chtaura to see Dr Araji, an ophthalmologist.
She stayed in his clinic for two weeks, and the crystals kept flowing
out of her eye. Dr Araji certified that the pieces were real crystals
and said he had no scientific explanation of the phenomenon. It could
only be understood, he thought, as an act of God.

A few days later,
Hasnah was told the same thing in another strange event.

"One night,"
she told Nabil, "I was still awake when I heard someone tapping
at the window. I got up, walked to the window and there I saw a man
dressed in white. He was sitting on a white horse, he smiled at me and
called me by name. He asked me if I would go outside to talk to him."

Hasnah went out
through the front door. There stood the "white knight", as
she calls him, waiting for her. He was dressed from head to foot in
a white tunic, which also covered his head and face. "The white
knight" said she needn't be afraid and he introduced himself to
Hasnah as a "messenger from God". A conversation developed
between them about which Hasnah revealed no further details, apart from
the fact that the white knight led her to understand that it was he
who had been behind the crystal tears, and that all went according to
God's will. There was a witness to the conversation: Hasnah's little
brother had followed her outside, heard his sister speaking, but failed
to see who she was talking to.

"The white
knight" visited her a few times again and gave her advice and various
warnings. When Hasnah asked when the tears would stop the answer was:
"When God wills."

A fascinating aside:
during one of her meetings with the white knight he advised Hasnah that
her whole family should leave their home temporarily because something
unpleasant was about to happen. The family followed the advice - all
except one son. The following day he was involved in a traffic accident,
and although his car was a write-off, Hasnah's brother escaped without
a scratch. The same evening she met the white knight yet again. He asked:
"Didn't I say that ALL of you should leave the house?"

Nabil Matraji responded
to these confidences by telling them his insights into the real circumstances.
"I told them about Maitreya, as the World Teacher, the Christ and
Mahdi which caused much excitement. Three hours later they were still
asking me questions, about religion, about the era to come. What I said
was an enormous relief to them since they had not really understood
all that had happened to Hasnah. Their reaction: 'This must be made
known everywhere, since this is the new hope for mankind.' "

At that stage of
the conversation Nabil also learnt about the background to the allegations
of fraud in the story. At a certain point as events unfolded, Hasnah's
father tried another ophthalmologist: Dr Salamoun in the American University
Hospital in Beirut. While she was under observation, more crystals oozed
out of her eye. The story became public: television stations, magazines
and newspapers flocked to the house of the Meselmani family to meet
the girl with the crystal tears.

Experts from Saudi
Arabia took the material to their laboratories and certified they were
real crystals. The next step was that Saudi Arabian authorities indicated
that they preferred the story to be hushed up. "Hasnah's father
told me that a lot pressure was put on him to keep quiet about it all,"
Nabil says. "They even offered him $50,000."

The offer was too
tempting: the Meselmani family is anything but wealthy, and the father
decided to accept the money. He did so in front of television cameras,
and it was this picture that convinced the public that it had been a
huge fraud after all: the whole incident was obviously all about money
and the father had manipulated the crystals into his daughter's eye.
Now he wouldn't think twice, he says: "If the crystals appear again
then I will let the case be re-opened. God's will must be done."

Even after five
hours of talking, reports Nabil, the family still did not want to let
him go, so spellbound they were by his insight into the event. "Can't
you stay the night? Then we will invite friends and we can continue
our discussion till dawn."

With the promise
to return soon for a second visit, Nabil finally took his leave only
to be telephoned shortly after that by Hasnah's excited father: both
his daughter and he had seen Maitreya in a dream. How did they know
it was Maitreya? Nabil had shown the family the photographs of Maitreya's
appearance in Nairobi, and it was in that form Maitreya appeared in
their dreams. Maitreya, Mr Meselmani remembered, had spoken to him at
length, but he could recall nothing of what had been said.

Hasnah, on the
other hand, did remember some of the words the "white knight"
spoke to her in her dream. He kissed her on the forehead and said: "I
will always be with you, even when you don't see me."

Editorial note:

1. Maitreya's appearance
as the "white knight" on a white horse evokes interesting
associations. In the Hindu tradition, Vishnu is awaited as the Kalki-avatar,
also a white rider. In the Bible's Book of Revelation the rider on the
white horse is also spoken of ("and behold a white horse; and he
that sat upon him [was] called Faithful and True"; 19:11). In the
Persian tradition the same applies to Sosiosh, about whom Helena Petrovna
Blavatsky wrote in her Theosophical Glossary: "Sosiosh - The Mazdean
Saviour who, like Vishnu, Maitreya Buddha and others, is expected to
appear on a white horse at the end of the cycle to save mankind."

2. That Maitreya
appeared dressed in white with his face covered at first is not without
significance within the Muslim tradition: it is forbidden to show the
faces or make images of holy people or divine envoys.)